A wide variety of package classes have been developed for integrated circuit application. The basic requirement has been for a multi-lead (8 to 48) sealed package unit. After a package unit is fabricated, its parameters need to be compared to both the technical specifications and the customer requirements. Commercially available testing systems can be categorised as the manual or one-at-a-time systems, and those capable of quickly making automatic tests on a large number of package units. Manual testing system including switching and handling are both tedious and costly as well as being subject to more testing errors than the automated testing system.
Critical issues of testing and finishing include how to avoid package unit damage, how to avoid lead damage, how to avoid package mix-up, and how to cope with mechanical and operational consequences as a result of temperature variations.
Placing package units into elongated plastic tubes allows handler equipment to accommodate an entire class of package units in carrier such as a single tube whose outside dimensions remain unchanged for all package units in that class. Assembled package units would usually fall by gravity sequentially, and the handler equipment would deliver them to testers, sort them at output, and deliver assembled package units to tubes.
A prior art test and finishing system includes steps of a rawline input, hot test, marking, ambient temperature test, lead straightening, packing and quality assurance outgoing control. This system module involves a length of 23.93 meters. The rawline input involves a step of manual loading and unloading of plastic tubes.